Module 2: Chapters 4, 5,6, and 8

This week we were assigned to read chapters four, five, six and eight. These chapters went hand in hand with my personal life and school life working as a program assistant. Chapter four had a particular section that I was very interested in because I deal with students who are labeled (pg. 122). Chapter five covered an important topic that I can relate to in my own personal life working with my own daughter on her speech (pg. 179). Chapter six was interesting to know the relationship between SES and school achievement (pg. 226). Chapter eight had me focused on attention and the role it plays when it comes to teaching.

In chapter four, it started off with “Labeling students is a controversial issue” (pg. 122). I do agree with that statement because no parent wants their child with a “bad” label. Parents do not like knowing their children is being defined by a label especially at an early age of three years old. We have had many parents ignore the issue because they do not want their child to have a “label” so soon or feel they may grow out of with, which makes it a controversial issue. From a parent point of view, I get that because I am a parent myself and I know I wouldn’t want a “label” to define my daughter at an early age either. The future teacher in me, I can also agree that it is a controversial issue, but sometimes it is necessary for some students so they can get more help for their education and school district. When we get a new student in our class who has a label (for example autistic), it does not fully tell us educators which methods to use for that student until we fully get to know that student ourselves. We use to read the child’s IEP to see what was written by the diagnostic team and it got to a point where we stopped looking at it before the students started school because we felt it not the reflect the student as a whole. We usually only look at the IEP for the goals that they need to meet. In our classroom, we have a couple students who are diagnosed and labeled with autism. We do not assume right away what kind of student he or she will be because I personally never met two autistic students alike. I do not like to assume students who are autistic have all of the same characteristics and learn the same way because that is not true at all. All our students are different in their own way with different academic goals, strength, and weaknesses. For me, as an educator, it is important to get to know them on a deeper level and to connect with them in order for them to succeed in life skills and in their academic skills as well.

Chapter five covered a topic that I have going on in my personal life with my own daughter. My daughter works with a speech therapist once a week and it has been the best decision I have made for her. Currently, she is almost at her one-year mark working with her therapist. She went from have two words (mom, more) to having 300+ words and can use short sentences, knows all her colors, alphabets, and body parts. Seeing how my daughter’s speech therapist work with her on building her language skills and finding her voice is a feeling that I do not take for granted. In my school, we have two speech therapist that works with all our students and also work with some individually. Majority of our student's ages 3-6 years old are being serviced at our pre-k building for free because they qualified under speech. On page 180 the table 5.1 shown is a good milestone chart to follow for early childhood language, but it does not mean if your child does not have 450 words by 2 that there may be something completely wrong. It is just a guide to help if your child is on the right track. Many of our parents come in worried because they read somewhere that if their child does not have this or that something automatically believes there is something wrong. We always remind our parents that while yes, your child should be doing this or that it does not mean it will happen right away.

Chapter six highlighted the relationship between SES and school achievement. “Families in poverty seldom do not have access to high-quality preschool care for their you children-the kind of care that enhances cognitive and social development (pg. 227). Not all low-income families lack resources. In my town, in particular, we have many programs for soon to be mothers and children ages 3-5 to attend or have services provided for them if they qualify. Most of the families qualify because they are low-income according to the number of people in the household. There are resources out there for families to receive access for their children to receive some sort of education. It goes back to show how poor students are also at risk of being stigmatized by their teachers and peers (pg. 226). Many students from low SES backgrounds refuse to adopt the behaviors and attitudes of the majority culture that is around them and that proves a lot of suggesting that all students who come from low-income household will be viewed as low expectations (pg. 227).

In chapter eight, I found how the role of attention works when it comes to teaching. I was interested in this chapter because it touched on attention and how much of a role it plays and how it impacts information. Some students have attention problems, but teachers must work at gaining and holding everyone’s attention for learning (Pg. 306). This reminds me of when I am working with the students in our blended classrooms. Though our students are very young, the teacher has to make sure all students are looking at her and making sure her lessons are short and to the point. It is very easy for our students to lose attention because their attention span is not long lasting compared to a 10-year-old. Another thing I found interesting in attention is students cannot process information that they do not recognize or perceive (pg. 307). It does depend on how successful information is processed and that can be because of several things not only on attention.

These four chapters have helped me understand better on concepts that I will be facing when I have my own classroom. There were certain aspects that I learned and now view a little more differently. These chapters showed more to what a student can offer without having a label defining them. Language is such an important factor because it really builds off of that especially when it comes time to show a student how to read. Having students coming from low-incoming household does not mean that I have to expect less from them and how grabbing students’ attention is crucial for them to retain memory.